Device for transfering data between an unconscious capture device and another device

ABSTRACT

Apparatuses and methods are disclosed for accessing and distributing data that includes a portable first device and a second device wherein both devices have unconscious capture capability. The first device has a first memory wherein at least one document is stored in the first memory of the first device. The first device has a transceiver, an identifier, and a public key to access a second device.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/874,885, filed on Jun.22, 2004, entitled “A Device for Transfering Data Between an UnconsciousCapture Device and Another Device,” which is a continuation of U.S. Pat.No. 6,772,338, issued on Aug. 3, 2004, entitled “A Device forTransfering Data Between an Unconscious Capture Device and AnotherDevice,” both assigned to the corporate assignee of the presentinvention and incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to devices capable of unconsciouscapture capability. More specifically, the invention relates to theunconscious capture of documents with a portable electronic device andthe transfer of such documents using the portable device.

2. Description of Related Art

Electronically transferring documents between various devices has becomean integral part of the work environment. However, the capability totransfer documents between mobile devices is very limited. Usually, inorder to send or receive documents with mobile devices, an individualmust make a conscious decision to transfer the information. That is,documents are not transferred until the individual performs some actionor actions that enable the transfer to occur. Increasingly, it isdesirable to have devices capable of unconsciously transferringdocuments between a mobile device and another device without anindividual making a conscious decision to do so and, thus, without theindividual having to take action(s) to cause the transfers to occur.

Systems for accessing and distributing electronic documents are wellknown in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,321 issued to Lammingdescribes a system in FIG. 1 in which a portable device transfers aUniversal Resource Locator (URL) to office equipment such as a copier, afacsimile machine, or a printer. Referring to FIG. 1, the officeequipment uses the URL to access a document stored on a server. Forexample, the portable device sends a URL to a printer, which accessesthe document from a document database using the URL, in order to printthe document. One problem with the system of the '321 patent is thatwhen the document is stored on a network system, the document is notsecure from others that have access to the network system. In otherwords, the document is being transferred to the printer and its onlysecurity is based on whether the URL is known or not. Another difficultyin the system of the '321 patent is that the operation of the portabledevice receiving a URL is performed in response to an explicit userrequest. To request the device to perform its function, the user mustenter some recognizable user identification to the device. Thus, theoperation of the device is not unconscious, but instead is conscious.

Another prior art device referred to as the “HP CapShare 910”manufactured by Hewlett Packard Corporation of Palo Alto, Calif., is adevice that is also capable of transferring a document to a facsimilemachine. The HP CapShare 910 system includes a scanner for scanninginformation and transferring the scanned image to the facsimile machine.This device has the same limitations as the device described above withrespect to the system in the '321 patent. Additionally, the user of thisdevice must have authorization by way of user identification to transfera document to a facsimile machine. Accordingly, conventional devices arelimited in that a document must be stored on a second device before anact is performed on the document by the second device. Additionally,these devices do not operate with unconscious capture capability.Therefore, it is desirable to have a system capable of transferringdocuments between unconscious capture devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A portable apparatus as described. In one embodiment, the portableapparatus comprises a wireless transceiver, a memory, and a processor.The wireless transceiver receives, via wireless communication, adocument being unconsciously captured by a first device and to transmitthe document to a second device, such that communication of the documentoccurs between the first and second devices. The memory is coupled tothe transceiver and stores the document. The processor is coupled to thetransceiver and the memory, and controls the transceiver to cause thetransceiver to receive the document unconsciously from the first deviceand to transfer the document as part of being downloaded to the seconddevice.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features, aspects, and advantages of the invention will become morethoroughly apparent from the following detailed description, appendedclaims, and accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a prior art system which transfers URLs to devices that accessthe document using the URLs; and

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a system havingan unconscious capture device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an alternative embodiment of the SMA thatsynchronizes files between two or more PC's.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to accessing and transferring data from adevice with unconscious capture to a portable device and then from theportable device to a third device. In one embodiment, the portabledevice has a memory capacity to store at least one document and atransceiver for receiving documents and transferring documents toanother device, such as a personal computer.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, andmagnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any typeof media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupledto a computer system bus.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear from the description below.In addition, the present invention is not described with reference toany particular programming language. It will be appreciated that avariety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachingsof the invention as described herein.

Overview

In one embodiment, the portable device is a Shuttle Memory Appliance(SMA) that may be used for unconscious transfer of documents betweenoffice appliances (e.g., devices, equipment, peripherals, etc.) anddocument databases. In one embodiment, the SMA is packaged as a devicecarried on a belt (like a pager). The SMA has a mechanism for wirelesscommunication and data transfer, a buffer memory (e.g., flash, disk,etc.), and a processor. The SMA is carried by users of SMA-capableunconscious capture devices, such as, for example, photocopiers,facsimile machines, multifunction machines, etc. In the case of thephotocopier, when the users make copies on the photocopier, the scannedelectronic versions of the copied documents are transferredunconsciously to the SMA. When the user returns to their personalcomputer (PC), the data on the SMA is unconsciously downloaded to amemory in the PC. In one embodiment, automatic indexing software istriggered on the PC and prepares the document for later retrieval.

In another embodiment, the transfer is conscious; the original devices(copier, fax, printer, PC) may contain a user interface that is used toconfirm data should be transferred to the SMA before the transferoccurs. For example, the user walks up to the copier, it detects thereis an SMA present, and indicates this on the console. The user has theopportunity to confirm transfer to the SMA before it occurs.

Using the SMA is advantageous in that it solves a significant securityproblem for users of unconscious capture devices. The images that arecreated do not have to exist on a local area network. They can be storedonly on the user's PC. The user can then enforce whatever securityprotection on access to the document they desire. Using the SMA alsosolves the user identification and routing problem for users ofunconscious capture devices. In one embodiment, users are not requiredto identify themselves to the device by, for example, pressing a button.The SMA performs this identification function automatically when the SMAis within communication range with the unconscious capture device.

In the following description, numerous specific details such as variousparameters, steps, etc. are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the invention. One skilled in the art will recognizethat these details need not be specifically adhered to in order topractice the claimed invention. In other instances, well known steps,etc. are not set forth in order to avoid obscuring the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system having an SMA-capable office appliance (OA),an SMA and a PC. Referring to FIG. 2, the SMA-capable office appliance201 includes a multifunction machine with unconscious capture capability201A, a wireless transceiver 202B, a processor 201C, and a memory 201D.The unconscious capture capability 201 refers to the ability and(functionality) of appliance 201 to create a copy of the document, suchas for archival purposes, whenever the device is performing its normalfunction. For more information on unconscious devices, see U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/754,721 entitled “Automatic and TransparentDocument Archiving,” filed Nov. 21, 1996, assigned to the corporateassignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, appliance 201 comprises a digital copier. Appliance201 performs unconscious capture in that an electronic version of adocument is created for archival purposes while making a copy of thedocument (in the case of a copier). Appliance 201 could also be ascanner. Such a scanner could be an expensive high speed device. In analternative embodiment, appliance 201 may comprise a facsimile (fax)machine, or a printer, etc.

In one embodiment, the transceiver 202B comprises a radio frequency (RF)transceiver. Such an RF transceiver may include a highly directionalantenna and a proximity detector for use in distinguishing SMA 202 fromother SMAs.

In one embodiment, appliance 201 includes processor 201C which controlsoperation of appliance 201. Processor 201C may be used to encrypt thedata before it is transmitted to SMA 202. A public key system could beused with the public key being transmitted to appliance 201 by SMA 202.

In one embodiment, appliance 201 includes a touchscreen user interfaceto indicate when appliance 201 detects more than one possibledestination SMA. The user could indicate the correct destination. Inanother embodiment, the touchscreen user interface indicates theidentity of the destination SMA or its registered user. The user couldconfirm the identification prior to the data being transferred betweenthe appliance 201 and the SMA 202. The user might also be required toenter a password to confirm his identity.

SMA 202 eliminates the need for a network connection. Users of SMA 202would also not be required to explicitly indicate the destination forthe scanned documents. This would be performed implicitly by SMA 202.

In one embodiment, SMA 202 includes a processor 202A, a wirelesstransceiver 202B (preferably RF), a buffer memory 202C, and atouchscreen or a simple display (not shown) plus a keypad (not shown).Processor 202A manages the communication process, including sending thepublic key of the user to appliance 201 as necessary. Processor 202Aalso performs the required memory management functions. The operatingsystem and any application-like software run on SMA 202 may include opensource alternatives like Linux.

A document is stored in appliance 201 and may be transferred to SMA 202through an RF link, through an infrared (IR) link, or any wirelesscommunication machine. If an IR link is used, appliance 201 and SMA 202have IR ports that must be in a direct line of vision in order totransfer the document. If an RF link is used, the signal coming fromappliance 201 to SMA 202 simply needs to be transmitted withoutrequiring ports to be directly aligned. Prior to document transfer, SMA202 transmits information to appliance 201 for identification. In oneembodiment, this information is used by appliance 201 to select anencryption scheme which the user desires to use or is able to determineits use. In one embodiment, the identification information allowsappliance 201 to identify which public key to use to encrypt thedocument prior to transfer to SMA 202.

In one embodiment, buffer memory 202E comprises a flash memory or aSmartmedia memory from Delkin Devices of San Diego, Calif. for storingdocuments received from appliance 201. The user interface on appliance201 allows the user to indicate an action to be performed on the dataonce it reaches PC 203. Actions might include electronic mailing orfaxing. In this manner, the user can specify an operation to beperformed on the stored document as soon as it is downloaded to PC 203.

In one embodiment, SMA 202 also sends information notifying appliance201 not to archive the document being copied, printed, faxed, etc., ontothe network. This information may be the same as the identificationinformation. That is, the fact that an SMA 202 is in proximity toappliance 201 and sends information to appliance 201 may cause appliance201 to automatically stop the automatic retention of an electronicversion of the document.

In one embodiment, once document transfer has been completed, SMA 202sends a signal to appliance 201 and informs the user that the documenttransfer has been completed. Appliance 201 may inform the user in avariety of methods. For example, appliance 201 may have a display with agraphical user interface that may be used for informing the user thatthe document transfer has been completed. An icon, textual information,or other communication machine may be shown on the display. In anotherembodiment, appliance 201 may emit a sound to indicate that documenttransfer has been completed.

After receiving a document from appliance 201, the SMA 202 may be usedto specify an operation to be performed on the document. The operationmay include printing the document, e-mailing the document, faxing thedocument, encrypting the document, storing the document, or any othertype of operation, such as transferring the document to a third deviceor multiple devices. The user may specify the operation using an inputdevice (e.g., keypad, styles, etc.) on SMA 202. After SMA 202 specifiedone or more operations to be performed on the document, SMA 202 mayoptionally encrypt the document and then transfer the document to PC203. PC 203 then stores the document as a new document or replaces theold document with the document transferred from SMA 202 and performs thespecified operation(s).

In one embodiment, PC 203 is equipped with a wireless transceiver 203Acompatible with SMA 202 as well as the necessary driver andapplication-level software (not shown). This software runs in thebackground, e.g., as a Windows Service or Unix daemon. In oneembodiment, in normal operation, the software would monitor a specificfrequency and periodically attempt to establish communication with itsSMA. If successful, it would query whether there are any new documentson SMA 202. If there is one or more new documents, they would betransferred to PC 203. Once stored on PC 203, the documents couldoptionally be decrypted and stored. In this manner, the downloads can beperformed unconsciously for the user.

In one embodiment, initialization of SMA 202 is performed by software onthe PC 203. In one embodiment, at initialization, this software promptsthe user for the serial number of SMA 202 as well as the user's publickey. Using this information, the software establishes communication withSMA 202 and sends it the appropriate initialization commands. A user'sinteraction with SMA 202 could be very limited, it may be as little aschanging batteries or tending to certain error conditions, such asmemory overflow or hardware reset.

In one embodiment, SMA 202 and PC 203 may be coupled in communicationusing a cable. However, in such a case, the download is no longerunconscious. The documents might also undergo optical characterrecognition and be indexed for later retrieval.

An SMA system could be used to synchronize data between PC's, exclusiveof any office appliances. This would allow users to seemlessly maintainthe same data on their office PC and their PC at home. FIG. 3 is a blockdiagram of an alternative embodiment of the SMA that synchronizes filesbetween two or more PC's. This is useful for ensuring that the same datais present on the PCs. Every time a user sits down in front of such a PCand opens a file (e.g., a Microsoft Word document), the contents of thatfile are guaranteed to be the same, no matter which PC the file isopened on. The state-of-the-art requires a manually operated (i.e.,conscious) step. Users must insert a device in a cradle, aim a device atan IR receiver and press a button, insert a disk into a disk drive, etc.The system of FIG. 3 eliminates this bothersome and error-prone processby communicating unconsciously with two or more PCs 301 and 303. Everytime PC 301 is in proximity to SMA 302, files are transferred to PC 303via SMA 302 over a wireless communication link using wirelesstransceiver 301B (e.g., wireless transceiver PCI bus card) of PC 301 andwireless transceiver 302A of SMA 302. At this time, files on SMA 302that had been uploaded to it by PC 303 (and stored in buffer memory302C) for transfer to PC 301 are sent to PC 301 over a wirelesscommunication link using wireless transceiver 301B and wirelesstransceiver 302A. The analogous operations are performed when SMA 302 isin proximity to PC 303.

In one embodiment, software is installed on each PC that uses an SMA forfile synchronization. Files may be synchronized between more than twoPCs. In one embodiment, this application may contain a user interface, adata structure, an operating system upgrade, and software forcommunication with an SMA. Upon installation on a first PC (e.g., PC301), a user indicates (using the user interface) his/her identity,encryption/decryption passwords, files that should be exported from thePC, as well as the identity of at least one SMA that are to be used totransfer data between various PCs. The user can also indicate theidentity of other PCs (e.g., PC 303) that are to receive data from thefirst PC. This could be entered manually or it could be selected from alist of alternatives downloaded from SMA 302. In one embodiment, thislist includes PCs (other than 301) that communicated with SMA 302 in thepast. The data downloaded from SMA 302 may also indicate whether theother PCs (e.g., PC 303) are ready to export any files or directories.In one embodiment, the user indicates whether he/she would like toreceive them.

In one embodiment, the destination on PC 301 where files from PC 303 arestored is indicated on the user interface. This destination may beexactly the same location the file is stored on PC 303. In this case,the system maintains a mirror (location and contents being the same) ofthose files and directories. Alternatively, the destination where thefiles from PC 303 are stored on PC 301 is different (e.g., C:\PC303).

The files or directories that a user would like to export from anyparticular PC are selected with the user interface. Specific files ordirectories, or entire directory hierarchies may be selected. Forexample, a user might indicate that every file in the C:\PROGRAMShierarchy should be exported. The target PC and destination directoryfor these files on the target PC can also be selected at this time.

The data structure maintained by the software application on PC 301includes a description of the files and directories that are beingexported and imported. This description includes their location (e.g.,path name), size, date of last modification, date of last transfer to(or receipt from) SMA 302, and one or more checksum values (e.g., MD5and CRC are well known checksum algorithms). The data structure alsomaintains information about other PCs (e.g., PC 303) that communicatewith PC 301 via SMA 302. In one embodiment, this includes the identifiesof those PCs, information about the status of the communication betweenthem (e.g., the last time files were exchanged was 5 days ago), andinformation about the update status of individual files and directorieson PC 303 (e.g., C:\PROGRAMS\WORD\WORD.DLL was last modified 23 daysago).

In one embodiment, an operating system upgrade is included to triggeranother application whenever a FILE SAVE operation is performed. Amodification to the file system performs an interrupt every time a fileis saved to disk. The interrupt service routine is passed the name ofthe file being saved. The interrupt service routine passes this name tothe communications software and returns control to the callingapplication. In an alternative embodiment, a modification to the diskcontroller driver software performs an interrupt every time it writes ablock to a physical disk drive. The interrupt service routine is passedan identification for the block and information that allows it toidentify the file in which the block occurs. The interrupt serviceroutine passes this identification to the communications software andreturns control to the calling application. In both cases (file systemtrigger or disk controller trigger), the data structure may be queriedand the interrupt performed if the data being written occurs in a filethat is being exported or imported. This check could also be done in theinterrupt service routine, thereby preventing unnecessary calls to thecommunications software. In any case, every time a file or block iswritten, the system data structure is updated and a dirty bit for thatfile indicating the file or block has been written is set to 1. A valueof 1 for the dirty bit indicates that the file has been changed, but thedata in the file has not been written to an SMA yet.

The communications software on the PC establishes communication withSMAs in its vicinity, as described earlier, and transfers data betweenthe PC and the SMA. After communication is first established (after someinterruption), the PC asks the SMA whether it has any files that need tobe downloaded. These candidates are files that were uploaded to the SMAat some time in the past (by some other PC) and have never beendownloaded to the PC. The SMA supplies the PC the names of these files,their destinations (if known), their last date of modification, theirsizes, and their checksums. The communications software compares theinformation for each candidate file to copies of the candidate file onthe PC (if they exist). Information about the copies can be extractedfrom the data structure. If the last modification time of the candidatefile is newer than its copy on the PC and the files are different (e.g.,as indicated by the checksum, difference in sizes, or a directcomparison), the candidate file overwrites the copy. Instead ofoverwriting the file, the candidate might be maintained as a copy on thePC, perhaps indicated by a modified file name and such as an appendedversion number. The user might also be prompted for confirmation beforeany file is overwritten.

In one embodiment, the PC dynamically uploads data to the SMA. In oneembodiment, this procedure includes an initialization mode and acontinuous mode. After establishing communication (after someinterruption) and performing the download as described above, thecommunications software enters upload initialization mode. Any files thedata structure indicates have either never been uploaded or changedsince the last time they were uploaded are now transferred to the SMA.The data structure is modified to indicate this has occurred. In oneembodiment, this includes setting the dirty bit for these files to 0.

Continuous upload mode is entered after initialization is complete andmaintained for as long as communication is maintained between the PC andthe SMA. Every time a file is modified (as directed by the operatingsystem update), either the entire file or a portion of it is transformedto the SMA. The entire file is transferred if no copy of it exists onthe SMA. Otherwise, a file diffferencing utility is applied to the PCand SMA versions, where the SMA version is the previous version sent tothe SMA and only the differences are transferred to the SMA. This cansignificantly reduce bandwidth usage on the PC bus and in the wirelesschannel. If this is not a significant consideration, the entire filemight be transferred every time it is changed.

In one embodiment, the upload mode described herein is dynamic. Previousmethods for the synchronization require that an explicit consciousoperation be performed (docking, insertion of diskette, pressing abutton, etc.) before a user leaves the console of a PC. Dynamicupdating, performed unconsciously, allows the user to leave from theconsole of a PC without performing any conscious act and still allowfiles to be synchronized with a different PC at some later time.

The SMA performs communications between unconscious capture devices andPCs while ensuring that the documents are only stored on the PC and noton a network. The use of the SMA also identifies the user of anunconscious capture device and eliminates the requirement of having theuser log in.

In one embodiment, the SMA and/or PC may comprise a network attachedserver that receives documents from unconscious capture devices. Oneembodiment of such a server is described in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 09/410,494, entitled “An Appliance to Mingle Content from anUnconscious Capture and Retrieval System and an Internet Portal,” filedSep. 30, 1999, assigned to the corporate assignee and incorporatedherein by reference.

In the preceding detailed description, the invention is described withreference to specific embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evidentthat various modifications and changes may be made thereto withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, tobe regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

1. A portable apparatus comprising: a wireless transceiver to receive,via wireless communication, a document subjected to unconscious captureby a first device and to transmit the document to a second device, suchthat communication of the document occurs between the first and seconddevices; a memory coupled to the transceiver to store the document; anda processor coupled to the transceiver and the memory, the processorcontrolling the transceiver to cause the transceiver to receive thedocument unconsciously from the first device and to transfer thedocument as part of being downloaded to the second device.
 2. Theportable apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the processor sends a keyto the first device and the document is received encrypted with the key.3. The portable apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein unconscious captureof the document into the memory occurs without user intervention.
 4. Theportable apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the first device comprisesa multifunction machine.
 5. The portable apparatus defined in claim 1wherein the first device comprises a copier.
 6. The portable apparatusdefined in claim 1 wherein the first device comprises a facsimilemachine.
 7. The portable apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the firstdevice comprises a scanner.
 8. The portable apparatus defined in claim 1wherein the first device comprises a printer.
 9. The portable apparatusdefined in claim 1 when the second device comprises a computer system.10. The portable apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the memorycomprises at least one flash memory.
 11. The portable apparatus definedin claim 1 wherein the memory comprises at least one disk memory. 12.The portable apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the transceivercomprises a radio frequency (RF) transceiver.
 13. The portable apparatusdefined in claim 1 wherein the transceiver comprises a modem.
 14. Theportable apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the transceiver comprisesan infrared (IR) transceiver.
 15. The portable apparatus defined inclaim 1 further comprising a proximity detector to determine when thetransceiver is near the second device.
 16. The portable apparatusdefined in claim 1 further comprising a directional antenna coupled tothe transceiver.
 17. A cell phone comprising the portable apparatusdefined in claim 1.